Wednesday, 31 August 2016

Margo Price brought her show featuring tracks from her solo debut Midwest Farmer's Daughter and a number of covers and interpretations of friends' songs to a sold-out and attentive audience at Manchester's Deaf Institute on Tuesday night. Backed by a five-piece band Margo's alternative country style, her infectious stage presence and show-stopping voice brought the house down in a way we'd not witnessed at the venue before.

Larkins first came to our attention at the back end of 2014 and since then they've released a string of great singles through 2015 and into 2016. They're back with probably their best track yet, Velvet, and play a headline show to support its release at Manchester Academy 3 tomorrow night. We caught up with front man Josh Noble to find out more about them and their plans for the single.

Tuesday, 30 August 2016

New four-piece One-Way Song came into being when a theatre group metamorphosed into a band as it became the the songs they were writing for a performance project seemed more suited to being performed on a stage and recorded and released in their own right. Their interesting back story becomes even more intriguing when you listen to the recorded output that they've shared so far.

Monday, 29 August 2016

Victorious Festival is in its third year on Southsea Common near Portsmouth and it continues to grow. This two day festival is set along the esplanade against the backdrop of the English Channel. The many varied acts performed over 4 stages scattered across the vast site. Our friend Shelley Taylor was delighted to be able to catch Slow Readers Club play on two of those stages on the Sunday (28th August) and reports back for us.

Sunday, 28 August 2016

With most of the musical youth of town in the mud of Leeds, This Feeling chose the bank holiday to put on probably their strongest line-up yet at their monthly club night at the Night And Day headlined by Dantevilles but with a supporting cast of Aussie pop lovers Fairchild, Mayflower and Stockport's next big hopes Matter Of Mind.

Ist Ist headlined Soup Kitchen as the launch gig for their Night's Arm single that came out on Friday. The venue was subjected to a sustained forty-minute aural assault that challenged and thrilled in equal measure as one of the city's most unique band launched eleven missiles into the packed crowd.

Saturday, 27 August 2016

2016 must feel like a year of life on the road for Billy Bibby and his band The Wry Smiles. He knows that constant touring is the one way to build an audience unless you have major label backing and he's certainly putting the hours and miles in. We caught up with him armed with a set of new songs to back up his debut EP at the Night And Day in Manchester on Friday night.

Kiran Leonard's five date tour in support of his album Grapefruit rolled into Manchester's Deaf Institute on Thursday night. As ever, his live show left the packed crowd stunned by the intensity and ambition of the performance that marks him out as one of the our most unique and inventive creative talents.

Thursday, 25 August 2016

Ist Ist release Night's Arm on Friday ahead of a headline show at Manchester's Soup Kitchen on Saturday night. Armed with a dark menacing black and white video that matches the mood of the song, Ist Ist make a sound that's harder and more raw than anyone else in town at the moment.

Wednesday, 24 August 2016

The Rifles' new double album Big Life is their first in two and a half years and as part of the promotional cycle for it, Joel and Luke played a short seven-song acoustic set at Manchester's HMV store on Tuesday night.

Furnaces is Ed Harcourt's seventh album of a career that started at the turn of the century with a Mercury Prize nominated debut. It's an album steeped in intellect and both political and social commentary and bold cinematic instrumentation and production. It cares not one jot for commercial appeal, jumps from theme to theme and style to style throughout, but still retains a continuity of purpose that makes it possibly his finest record to date.

Monday, 22 August 2016

The Maitlands are another band waving the flag for the old guard in Manchester at the moment, proof that you don't have to be eighteen, photogenic and have great hair to make great music. The room's impressively busy for an unsigned night even though it's just past eight o'clock to see them run through seven strangely chaotic and brilliant songs before front man Carl hugs everyone and heads off to the bar.

Before heading down to the Arena for Morrissey we popped into Soup Kitchen to see Urban Theory for the first time. The Bury four-piece were our Track Of The Day a few months back, but since then they've undergone a line-up change and this is their first Manchester gig with the new set-up. We leave massively impressed by a band that manages not just to sound very tight and together, but one with that something extra that's needed to stand out from the mass of four/five boys with guitars in Manchester at present.

Sunday, 21 August 2016

It was a gig that many thought they wouldn't see again, a gig that many fear we won't see again if all the rumours are true about Morrissey's health, but 16,000 of us from far and wide packed into the cavernous arena to pay homage to Steven Patrick and in true inimitable Morrissey style he didn't play by the rules and delivered a set full of curveballs, direct and indirect messages and left us streaming out with a smile on our faces by finishing by one of his best-known and most-loved songs.

Saturday, 20 August 2016

Relying on the Manchester weather is always a risky business, so the day's downpours meant that B33's Rooftop party was moved down two floors into an open space in the same building. We caught Feed The Kid and new signings Saytr Play and The Hotspur Press play short sets to a growing crowd.

Friday, 19 August 2016

As part of Dr Martens' Stand For Something campaign they partner up with bands and recently they've linked up with Cupids cumulating in a hot and sweltering in-store set last night in their Market Street store. Ever adaptable, Cupids performed amongst the boots and shirts to a crowd that had packed in from the street to catch them in another unusual setting.

Golden Sings That Have Been Sung is Ryley Walker's third album following the underground successes of debut All Kinds Of You and last year's follow-up Primrose Green. It's an album that captures, as much as can be, the essence and spirit of Ryley's intense and thrilling live shows. The press release describes it as a coming of age, we'd go further and describe it as his masterpiece.

Thursday, 18 August 2016

We're proud to exclusively reveal the new video from The Winachi Tribe. Time For Love (Mark Pistel Remix) is a film that captures a mad twenty-four hours on the road as the band travelled from Aberdeen to Manchester concluding in a wild show at Manchester's Live Room. Travelling with them was Manchester film maker Shari Denson who captured the chaos and the band's back to basics DIY approach.

Wednesday, 17 August 2016

Delamere have been making a name for themselves in the past two years with their own brand of shiny guitar anthems playing to an increasing fan base. Their debut album consolidates that position with four of their singles and six other tracks which remain true to those ingredients that have drawn those people in whilst avoiding the pitfalls of repeating the same trick over and over.

Ahead of the release of his second album Phase Zero next week, Sub Pop's Morgan Delt is touring Europe and we caught up with his set at Manchester's Soup Kitchen with support coming from local rising stars Ethan And The Reformation and Liverpool's Dusst.

Tuesday, 16 August 2016

Trampolene's The Gangway EP is subtitled Pocket Album Four and continues their fine tradition of periodically releasing five tracks ahead of recording their debut album. Like its predecessors it's a heady and wild mix of rock and roll that deals both in subtleties and foot to the floor amplification with poetry and an ambitious take on a cover, this time The Cure's Friday I'm In Love, to boot.

Monday, 15 August 2016

Sunday saw the second day of Scruff Of The Neck's Pop Up Festival located at the King's Ransom in Sale. We spent the afternoon and early evening watching nine great bands from both Manchester and further afield that have performed for the label this year on the outdoor stage by the picturesque setting of the canal.

Floral are an American duo specialising in instrumental math-rock, just guitars and drums and no trickery involved. They've just kicked off a UK tour and we caught them late on a Sunday night at AATMA where they demonstrated on many fronts why less is something more.

Friday, 12 August 2016

It's ten years since Liam Frost and The Slowdown Family released their debut album Show Me How The Spectres Dance, destined to go down as one of the greatest lost albums of all time, its claims to greatness done immeasurable damage by the fascination of the southern music industry with the concept of Britpop and the demise of a record label that hadn't the means to support it. Ten years on, Liam's reforming the band to perform two sold-out shows at Manchester's Deaf Institute in early September and he warmed up with a solo show at the intimate Artisan in Rawtenstall.

Wednesday, 10 August 2016

Friday night saw a mammoth five band line-up at The Castle in Manchester for End Of The Trail Records. We caught four of them, a varied bunch of styles featuring False Advertising, The Nouvelles, The Rogue Network and The Bad Trips.

Tuesday, 9 August 2016

UPDATED 10/8 Added response from Andy Smith to clarify that what he believes is needed is the conference element of the event and details of some additional local festivals.

The Off The Record Music Festival has been launched with a fanfare today. Curated by big name musicians such as Guy Garvey and Tim Burgess as well as big names in radio such as X Radio's Clint Boon and John Kennedy, it's giving thirty acts a massive shop window for their talents and an exposure that will help them significantly as they strive for their big break. We applaud the intentions of the organisers but we take issue with some of their claims.

As part of the celebrations of the release of their self-titled debut album, Blossoms booked two shows at Manchester Gorilla to play the new record to their fans. Tickets sold out in seconds as they did for the Academy show next month, and the venue witnessed two packed to the rafters sweaty shows that probably bade farewell to venues of the this size given the ever increasing fanbase they're collecting. Support came from Manchester's own Dantevilles, who are making their claim to be the next of the city's bands to break through.